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Some families are related by blood, some are chosen — and others are purchased from the discount bin at a Parisian flea market for $7.

“All our friends started having children, and we got very annoyed because they had to cancel engagements and there were always excuses,” says 74-year-old Chelsea resident AJ Sapolnick. The retired teacher and his husband, former dentist Mark Kirby, 65, decided to have a baby “that wouldn’t impede our lifestyle.”

And so Digby Du Pont, a plastic baby doll, was born April 21, 1990, in France.

“It became very real, very fast,” says Sapolnick. The couple has since marked more than a few of their salvaged son’s milestones such as a birthday celebration at the ‘21’ Club and a bar mitzvah at the now shuttered Water’s Edge restaurant in Long Island City, although, according to Kirby, “It was supposed to be at the Plaza.”

Money is no object for this object, who’s lavishly spoiled with Cartier and Rolex watches, dinners at Michelin-starred restaurants and bespoke tuxedos. “Nothing is too good . . . everything he wants he gets,” Sapolnick tells The Post. He admits Digby is “entitled,” but it’s to be expected for a child who’s dined at Pastis, attended the Grand Prix in Monte Carlo and, of course, seen “Hamilton.”

“He’s our perfect child,” says Kirby, who is grateful to have avoided the parental pitfall of human children — teen rebellion. “Initially it looks very strange, but as you get to know us, and be with us — it doesn’t seem so unusual.”

Or, as Sapolnick puts it, “We just seem like a normal New York family.”

AJ Sapolnick and Mark Kirby have cared for their plastic son, Digby Du Pont, since 1990.New York Post

As for grooming, “he just needs to be polished once in a while,” says Sapolnick. “Fortunately, he’s never been sick, although he did break his leg three times.”

“The Digbys,” as they’re called by friends, are currently on a 10-week tour of Asia and docked in Vietnam.

“When we’re in Bangkok we expect to have a new wardrobe made for him,” Sapolnick says, adding that Digby’s threads are custom-fitted simply because they can’t find anything off the rack.

“He wears preemie size, and when someone is preemie size they’re usually in an incubator — they don’t go out to black-tie occasions, or do as much as he does socially.”

Alas, in terms of emotional bonding, Kirby concedes, “You’re not getting the overt affection . . . you’re not going to see yourself as much in the child.” (“I don’t know, people say he looks like me,” responds Sapolnick.)

Well, they certainly dress alike, often sporting the same outfits while out and about. “I found that if we’re wearing contrasting or competing patterns it looks so overwhelming [in photographs],” Kirby says.

Adds Sapolnick: “And the last thing we want to do is be over the top.”